If you are a business owner of any size, you don’t want to miss this episode! Today I’m talking with AmyK Hutchens. Amy teaches leaders, business owners and sales leaders, how to communicate more effectively. Basically, she helps people become master communicators.
This conversation is SO interesting. Whether you are the CEO of a fortune 100 or fortune 10 company, a CEO of a tech startup, a solopreneur, a small business owner or a local business… this episode has value for you.
In this episode, we’ll cover:
- How AmyK helps struggling companies
- The ONE major fundamental piece of your business, that many people struggle with
- How to lean in and connect with your customers so they feel heard and understood
- How to have tough conversations with customers and employees, using AmyK’s magical phrases – to change the dynamic and avoid defensiveness
- Magical back pocket one liners that can change the tone of a conversation in a heartbeat
- and, the pros and cons of scripted conversations and how to find your own tone
What is something you didn’t know when you started this journey?
I came at my business from the perspective of, I want to serve and I want to help, and I love what I do. I didn’t really know what it meant to be an entrepreneur, so it was trial by fire and I learned the hard way. I landed in that dark and shadowy place a couple times. Wondering, is it even possible to scale with ease and speed? You just don’t realize how hard it is to be an entrepreneur. But you figure it out.
Take us behind the scenes of the AmyK Consulting brand:
I believe we’ve all been trained in something. But nobody ever taught us how to community in our day-to-day. In high school or collage you may have taken a public speaking class. But, nobody ever sat down with us and said, you’re going to need to cast a vision, you’re going to have to align teams, as well as hire and fire – and all of these are really tough conversations.
I believe, if you really want to be successful and scale, there are a lot of things you’re going to need. ONE major fundamental piece is your ability to communicate and your ability to turn a tough conversation into a highly profitable one. And profitable doesn’t necessarily mean dollars. It could be energy, time, relationship, or a boundary established.
“Any conversation that you lead with remember, your goal is to insight action. And in order to get that action taken – you’ve got to create an experiential or emotional response.” – AmyK
Is there a trigger phrase that can help change a conversation and avoid having a person becoming defensive?
I’m a huge curator of magical phrases. I’m not a fan of scripting though. I think scripting makes you sound robotic and it prevents you from listening. However, a brilliant back pocket one liner can change the tone of a conversation in a heartbeat. I encourage leaders to start with a magical phrase called, “How might we?”. This immediately gets more buy-in and engagement and says your voice matter. I like to send these questions ahead of time in my email invitation to a meeting.
Four of AmyK’s Magical Phrases:
- How might we…?
- A part of me…
- I have a story in my head…
- What do you need from me that you’re not getting?
“There are going to be plenty of people who want to play in your sandbox. And there will be many who don’t. You don’t need to change you to attach the many. Focus on the people who do want to play with you and you’ll be plenty busy.” -AmyK’s Dad.
Connect with AmyK:
AmyK Hutchens is an international award-winning speaker, Amazon bestselling author and has over 19 years’ experience training, coaching and consulting. With over 75+ speaking events per year for clients such as Starbucks Canada, Expedia, Lockheed Martin, Securian Financial, IBM, Wells Fargo, Walmart, John Paul Mitchell Systems, and many more, AmyK travels the world helping leaders become Master Communicators so they can lead, innovate, sell and collaborate more effectively. One. Conversation. At. A. Time.
As a featured contributor for Entrepreneur magazine and with her brand new book, GET IT: Five Steps to the Sex, Salary and Success You Want, AmyK teaches executives, biz owners, influencers and go-getters how to get the EXACT results they desire without saying something they regret, giving their power away or damaging relationships along the way.
AmyK received her M.S. from Johns Hopkins University and has been a featured guest on numerous TV and radio networks including Bloomberg, NBC and ABC. She resides in San Diego, CA.
- Download one of AmyK’s free cheatsheets to have a profitable conversation asap!
- Purchase AmyK’s new book GET IT on Amazon.
- Sign up for AmyK’s signature program: The Power of Profitable Conversations
